Do you, as a yoga studio owner and yoga teacher know negligence and liability law? How about the effectiveness of releases? Premises liability?
Probably not. Part of the problem with learning yoga studio liability law (and many other laws that govern) is finding the law. Did you know much of the law that governs in the USA and the Commonwealth countries stem from court decisions? Court-decision law-making systems are common law systems.
That means you need to read the appropriate court decisions to know the law.
The good news is now you can read court decisions and legal opinions in Google Scholar for free. Until now, lawyers and law firms paid hefty monthly fees to access court decision databases. Now the very laws that govern are available to all.
Read Google’s blog post Finding the laws that govern us to learn more about Google Scholar and the common law process.
Why should you as a yoga studio owner and yoga teacher care about learning the law?
It’s not all law you need to care about, only applicable law.
Most likely you won’t have time to follow the law. However, if a situation arises or you have a legal question, you can see if you can research the answer yourself.
That said, if your legal question is complex or there are potential consequences, seek the advice of a lawyer.
Examples of legal areas that apply to yoga studios and yoga teachers and so you may want to read about are as follows:
- personal injury liability
- waiver / signed releases
- sexual assault / harassment
- premises liability
- product liability
- libel / slander
Obviously, you’re not going to spend hours a day learning the legal areas that apply to you, your yoga teachers and your yoga studio. However, if you have a legal question, check out Google Scholar for starters.
Related posts: